Shawna, a chiropractor, and Jen, an engineer, are very busy people. They love their work, their children, twelve-year old twins, a boy and a girl, the outdoors and baseball. With a lifestyle that reflects life and fullness, the inspiration behind Shawna and Jen’s decor was clear. As Shawna conveyed, “I always wanted a mix between clean and contemporary, to make my home welcoming. A home you can touch and live in.” The couple shared that it was important for their home to have clean lines, but also be filled with experiential objects, things that would bring them back to important moments, like a painting from their honeymoon in Israel and family pictures.
Shawna’s voice was full and resonated when she spoke about finding out that her home was going to be transformed, “Jen called me and told me to sit down – I had a thousand things running in my head over what that could be about – but when she told me we had won, well, there was lots of screaming. It’s been an amazing experience.” In fact, Shawna shared that the experience of winning is almost foreign to the couple, “we work hard, but we don’t often win things. We won two lottery tickets some time ago, but that’s the extent of it.” They felt very excited about the possibilities the transformation would offer them.
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Shawna and Jen began renovations on their home a couple years ago, after a designer friend of theirs suggested they “freshen things up.” However, given Jen and Shawna’s busy lifestyle, full of parenting and work, the changes took time, as some rooms experienced a makeover, others, like the front room became the storage space for the overflow. They knew they wanted to make that front room something special, a welcoming space for all the people in their lives.
When Shawna first walked into Artemano, while waiting for her daughter to finish dance class, she immediately loved the ambiance. However, with the extent of the home renovations they had already undertaken, they placed their favourite Artemano pieces back on their wish list. Shawna describes her experience on that day when she and Jen chose to enter the contest in Heartland, Mississauga, “it felt good in there. It’s warm: the designers do a good job and the lines of the furniture are beautiful. There’s a great mix between that contemporary feel and the wood look. It doesn’t look hard like some designs can. It is welcoming and the furniture is gorgeous.” They knew they wanted the same for their home, and so, they purchased a piece for their kitchen.
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The couple felt comforted and inspired by the process with the Artemano team. They delighted in how they could harmonize aspects of their home with the transformation in terms of the colours and textures, like including certain art pieces which were highlighted by the freeform lines of the furniture. As Shawna says, “I experience this funny mix of calm and excitement when I stand in the front room. It looks spectacular. It’s almost as though the furniture calms me down. It is tidy, the lines are clean and there is a great layout. It almost feels as though the room is energetic or vibrant because the wood looks alive. The room looks alive.” They also knew the transformation was a success when their twins immediately brought their things into the room to put in
the decorative wooden crates. Both children were excited, showing that the space is both beautiful and functional.
Given their children’s baseball and dancing sessions are in full swing, they do more standing in their front room than living in it, but they have already enjoyed beautiful dinners there and expect to enjoy it ever more in the coming weeks. In the coming years, the room’s welcoming and rich ambiance will give birth to new memories.
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